Good Samaritan uses life-saving skills from new job to aid pedestrian, critically injured in Morristown crash

Usually, Wilmer Aguilar-Lopez is the one dispatching authorities to crash scenes. But he became the first responder when he discovered an unresponsive pedestrian bleeding on Ridgedale Avenue in Morristown.

Aguilar-Lopez came to the aid of Erik Cox-Gonzalez, who was struck by a car at 9:30 pm on Sunday, Oct. 11, 2020.

“One of the things we’re taught is CPR,” said Aguilar-Lopez, 28, hired last year by the Morris County Communications Center. He was driving to QuickChek for a snack when he saw what he thought was a deer on the road, in front of a Dodge Charger.

When he realized the victim was a man, Aguilar-Lopez called 911, then summoned his training. “I thought he was dead,” said the Good Samaritan, who remembers tying to talk himself through the situation the same way he has calmed distraught 911 callers.

Aguilar-Lopez began pushing on the man’s chest, as the Charger driver looked on, “kind of in shock.”

The victim “started agonal breathing (gasping), which is a good sign,” Aguilar-Lopez recounted.

Cox-Gonzalez, 39, of Morristown, remained in critical condition at Morristown Medical Center on Monday.

He sustained “severe facial trauma…(and) a small brain bleed” after being struck by a 2019 Dodge Charger driven by Johnnie Lonon, 60, of Morristown, reported investigating Officer Eric Petr.

Police have ruled Cox-Gonzalez at fault in the crash, for not using a marked crosswalk.

After consuming “about six beers” in the vicinity of the Morristown CVS, Cox-Gonzalez had walked across town, and was heading north along Ridgedale when he and his friend Alvaro Molina decided to cross the avenue and head back into town, Molina told Officer Petr.

“I find the pedestrian at fault for crossing the roadway without utilizing a marked crosswalk which is easily accessible at the end of the block he was walking on,” Petr concluded in his report.

The following account is from the officer’s report.

As Cox-Gonzalez, Molina, and a third, unidentified pedestrian were crossing, Molina saw the oncoming vehicle. He told police it “was going at a high rate of speed and swerved just before hitting” Cox-Gonzalez.

Lonon, the driver, said he was traveling south on Ridgedale nearing Abbett Avenue when three people crossed in front of him, from his left to his right. He hit his brakes and swerved, missing Molina but striking striking Cox-Gonzalez. The third pedestrian ran from the scene, Lonon told police.

After the car’s hood hit him, Cox-Gonzalez stood up, stumbled into the travel lane, and collapsed on the roadway. The driver called 911 and stayed at the scene as a passerby–Wilmer Aguilar-Lopez–applied CPR to Cox-Gonzalez.

Officer Petr and members of the Morristown Fire Department took over first aid until paramedics from Atlantic Health arrived, and transported Cox-Gonzalez to the hospital.

Petr said he asked for Lonon’s permission to examine his cell phone, and found no calls, emails or text messages from the period just before the accident.